Anytime Resolution: Treat your Spouse as you would your Best Friend

16. January 2012

Anytime Resolution - As the name suggests, it is a resolution that can be taken up anytime when you feel the need and are ready for a change.
I hope to provide you with some useful suggestions that will bring you closer to living a more flourishing life in various aspects.

Today's Anytime Resolution is to treat your spouse as you would your best friend (if you are not already doing that).

This is a resolution that I adopted when I noticed that there were numerous times when I treat my best friends better than I would my husband. For examples:

I am always eager to see my best friends, greet and hug them warmly even when I am having a bad day. With my husband, I was less incline to make the effort

When my best friends say something that sounds offensive, I give them the benefit of a doubt and clarify the issue. With my husband, I was more likely to launch into an attack and demonstrate
less patience.

I hardly give my best friends the cold shoulder or declare a cold war.

I don't use my best friends as a punching bag for sure.

I bite my tongue and rethink my choice of words before saying something that I would regret with my best friends.

Even when I have something urgent and important to say to my best friends, I will ask, "Is this a good time?" before going into a verbal diarrhoea. With my husband, anytime
is a good time forverbal diarrhoea.

What I learned from relationship expert is that happy marriages are based on a deep friendship whereby the couple know and
have a strong regard for each other. Additionally, they express this fondness not just in a song and dance but in little ways, day in and
day out.

Asking myself, "Am I treating my husband as well as my best friend when I behave this way?" reminds me to do the less convenient but the right thing. There simply is no good reason why he doesn't
deserve as much as what I would have offered to my best friends. After all, we committed our lives to each other, something that I didn't do with my best friends formally.

Growing up in an environment where my parents weren't best friend to each other, I am terribly grateful that I have the opportunity to do things differently and enjoy a more flourishing marriage.
You can too.